Sorry. This post was not ready to publish. I've been under the weather a bit lately and I've been messing up with the buttons. All the buttons are right next to each other: publish, unpublish, schedule. I must have hit the wrong one.

I fixed it up the best I could, at least from a seat at Champions University Grill and Bar at Moscow. The Idaho Vandals aren't on TV, so I have room to spread out the laptop.

Tablerock, Mount Hood, Painted Hills (twice), Beaverton, Ecola State Park,
Obsidian Trail (west side of North and Middle Sister), roostie head and Mount Hood/Hood River Valley.

I assume Table Rocks is in the Medford area. I don't know where "roostie head" is located. Mount Hood, Painted Hills and Ecola were covered in my companion list, the best drive-to landscapes.

So that leaves Beaverton and Obsidian as new additions. I guess I need to spend more time in Beaverton. I think Broken Top's lake (on my list) better represents the beauty of the Three Sisters area than the Obsidian Trail. But everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Yes, I have seen parts of the grassland impacted by cows. There is also an ATV trail system.

My landscape is specific: two off-trail pinnacle ridges. I visited in 2010 and in 2011. I did not notice a degraded landscape, once I quit driving and started walking. I saw no cows, only a deer with fawn. And a beautiful rattlesnake that alerted me to its presence, then let me take the photos I wanted. Also, lots of wildflowers, including blooming bitterroot.

The chosen landscape includes the view beyond the border of the grassland: the snowy volcanoes of the Cascades and the green of spring in the rural ranches, farms and housing tracts that cover much of central Oregon, between Bend and Madras.

Thanks, Steve, I made these updates. I was on vacation last week in Hawaii and last-minute checks slipped off my docket. I have info coming Wednesday on Meissner Nordic, which used to be Tumalo Langlauf Club in central Oregon, and other cross-country ski opportunities from Santiam Pass to Diamond Lake.
Terry

There were a few mosquitoes during the evening when I camped in the dunes. I covered up and they didn't bother me. Also, all you need to do is find a windy spot and the skeeters disappear.

Rattlesnakes live in Oregon east of the Cascades and in the southwest valleys/lower mountains. They do not live on the coast or in the dunes.

Once we got a short way from U.S. 101, there was no vehicle noise during my dunes weekend. The only vehicle we saw was one legally driving on the beach. We didn't hear it because of the pounding surf.

While an ATV rider may veer into a closed area in the dunes, they rarely encroach on the big areas where they are not allowed. Access would be too difficult and this activity is fairly well self-policed. Most dune buggy riders (same as snowmobilers in winter) love their sport and play by the rules. They get a bad rap because environmental elitists (I'm a backpacker, am I one of these?) look down on them because of the noise they produce and fossil fuels they consume.

I didn't see any TP gardens The same goes in the dunes as in the woods: bury it in an eight-inch hole away from surface water and pack out the white stuff. Don't try to burn it because the wind can spread a fire quickly.

Plastic is ubiquitous. Backpackers leave behind a miniscule part of it int he dunes.

If you have not yet been a little further south, we invite you to come
down to the McMinnville AVA and stop by our tasting room, Youngberg
Hill. Grand views of the Cascades including Mt Hood, Jefferson, &
Sisters, the Eola Hills, and the coast. And we have the wines to match
the fabulous views.

My article refers to views from the Druid Plateau: the distant views of the Cascade peaks, as well as the closer views of the Stuart Range.

The Druid Plateau is on the north side of Cannon Mountain. An access description is in Fred Beckey's Alpine Climbing Guide to the Washington Cascades, volume 1. The route is not difficult to find, as long as it's not foggy, because it is above treeline. Any topo map of the Alpine Lakes will show a feasible route from the Enchantment Lakes Basin (beginning at Perfection Lake) to Cannon Mountain.

Views up there are spectacular everywhere. You don't need to go to the Druid Plateau to see them.

My dear departed sister was one person who hated her trip to Steens Mountain. She traveled all over the world, so she saw it through open eyes. It was too dusty, buggy and hot for her tastes.

I have to say that I have spent a few days on Steens Mountain that I wished I hadn't. Once I arrived in the heat of August, only to sit trapped in my van watching the flies eat every squished bug off my windshield that died there on the way from Winnemucca, Nev.

This trip was a couple of years ago. These roads get occasional maintenance, so conditions change. When driving BLM roads in remote southeast Oregon, you need to take them as they are. If things get tough, turnaround like I did. It's not worth the risk of getting stuck. Even if you hope to visit Mickey Springs again and end up being stymied by the road, there are plenty of other things to see on the east side of Steens Mountain to make the trip worthwhile.